Returning the favor
by TimeGuardian
Summary: My first Jonny Quest fic set after the Thoughtscape episode. Jessie questions her worth as a member of the Quest team, but when Jonny is in danger, will she rise to the challenge? REVISED.


**_Returning the Favor  
_**_A Real Adventures of Jonny Quest fan fiction  
__By Time Guardian _

_New York_ _NY-_

The rotund gentleman settled down in front of his keyboard and prepared for a long session online.

He logged into his bank account, and noticed that the money he was expecting from his client had already arrived. _Excellent._ He wanted a challenge and the Quests VR system was the best one to go up against if his fellow hackers were to be believed.

Opening up one of his many plastic cases, he removed a gold CD and inserted it into his computer. The man chuckled as he tapped away on his keyboard, bringing up the tools and the base viral code he would need for this job. His research into viruses and code would net him the ultimate score. Thanks to him, Dr. Jeremiah Surd would be free, and no one could possibly stop him from unleashing the ultimate virus that would cripple Quest world and the rest of cyberspace.

_

* * *

_

_Quest Compound, __Maine__- _

Jessie Bannon sat on one of the numerous rocks on the coastline and sighed. The nighttime sky was lit brightly with stars, and the moonlight danced across the water that was crashing into the rocks, but other things weighed heavily on her mind. Things were finally quieting down after Jeremiah Surd attempted to control her mind, but she still felt uneasy.

_I almost killed everyone. _

She heard a welcoming voice behind her, but didn't turn around.

"Hey Jess!"

Jonny Quest took a seat on a rock beside her and ran a hand through his close-cropped blond hair. He had been worried about her, and was determined to find out what was going though her head. "I couldn't sleep, especially after I saw you sneak out of the house a few minutes ago. What's going on?"

Sighing, Jessie made up her mind to share her fears. She started, "I'm no good to this team...because of me the place is wrecked and I nearly killed you guys and-"

Jonny gently touched Jessie's arm, getting her attention and breaking into her thoughts. "Whoa, that's enough of that. We all have been in more scrapes than I care to count. For that matter we have all been in danger more times than I care to count. Working together has always seen us through."

"Yeah," she mumbled, sounding unconvinced. "Hasn't there ever been a time that you were in danger and you thought you were going to die, that you would never be able to see your friends or loved ones again?"

Jessie watched him intently in the moonlight. He seemed lost in thought for a moment before smiling. "No, not when I when I am on a team as good as this one. We watch out and care for each other. We were able to rescue you cause of that, and If I was in the same position, I know you would do the same for me."

Jonny could feel her doubt as looked into her smoky green eyes. "You would probably feel better with a good nights sleep. Are you ready to go back inside?"

Jessie returned his gaze. "I guess so. Thanks, Jonny." She got to her feet and on an impulse, kissed him lightly on the cheek.

She resisted the urge to laugh as the moonlight revealed a blush creeping over Jonny's face.

"Why did you do that?" Jonny asked in some surprise.

"Because I felt like it," Jessie replied with an impish grin. "I'll race you back!"

They quickly took off in a run towards the house.

_

* * *

_

_Four months later- _

In the lighthouse lab, Hadji Singh sat at the control interface to IRIS and quickly tapped out the commands for transport. He was assisting on an important experiment, and was making sure that everything was prepared for a journey into Quest world.

"Are you ready, Dr. Quest?"

Dr. Benton Quest sat at an opposite console, quickly typing in some calculations. "Just about. Once I go into Quest world, I will be able to use this data I am entering to finish my energy research virtually. It'll be safer and less expensive than doing it in real time."

Moments later, he finished his data entry and stood, heading towards one of the main chairs in front of the VR monitors. As he sat down, Dr. Quest grabbed for a VR visor that was sitting on the arm of the chair and imparted some last minute instructions to Hadji. "Everything is prepared. Hadji, I have sent the data to your terminal. Once I am in position in Quest world, download the data to me."

Nodding, Hadji started the sequence. "Quest world, Log On. Subject: Dr. Benton Quest. Going Hot in..3..2..1."

Dr. Quest saw the customary flash, and then the scenery faded into the familiar green and black of the VR landscape. He blinked for a moment to get used to the environment, and then walked around in his virtual surroundings. He didn't get a chance to go virtual that often, but when he did it was always quite a rush - or at least that's the way his son Jonny would have described it.

Dr. Quest called out. "Ok Hadji, activate the data."

He heard Hadji's voice as he started to say something, but then the audio seemed to slow down to a standstill. _Something's not right. I better log out of here. _

Dr. Quest then attempted to log out, but found that he couldn't.

"Hadji! Hadji! Can you read me?" He shouted.

The surrounding sector he was in turned pitch black. His suspicions aroused, Dr. Quest tried to run, but came across a dark barrier on all sides. It was then a familiar laugh chilled his senses to the bone.

"Surd."

Jonny and Jessie were peddling their bikes furiously to get home.

"I can't believe you made us late coming home from school because of the stupid prom!" Jonny huffed as he tried to peddle ahead of Jessie.

"Me? I didn't see you complain when the FEMALE student body president nominated you to be prom king," Jessie retorted while trying to increase her speed.

Once they made it inside the gates, they dropped their bikes and were about to go into the main house when they spotted Hadji running to them in a panic. "Come quick! This is terrible-"

Jonny grabbed his arm. "Hadj, what is it, what's wrong?"

Hadji wrung his hands nervously as he looked back at the lighthouse in the distance. "Dr. Quest is trapped within Quest world. I cannot reach him!"

Jonny turned to Jessie. "Let's go."

The three of them quickly ran for the lighthouse.

When they reached the lab of the lighthouse, Jonny took a seat in front of one of the terminals. He began typing furiously and thinking out loud. "This is a hackers doing...it has to be. I can't get a bearing or a visual on dad. Every time I try and open an audio channel to him I get nothing but static. To top it off, the fail safes have been removed. Any damage done to him in Quest world will affect him out here, maybe even kill him."

Jessie checked the sensor readouts from the monitor closest to Dr. Quest. "His vital signs are reading normal so far."

"The only thing that has been left one hundred percent operational is the ability to log into Quest world," Hadji stated.

"It has to be a trap," Jessie said, "Why leave a way open and no way out?"

"There's only one way to find out," Jonny stated with determination. He walked towards one of the open chairs and reached for a VR visor.

"Are you crazy?" Hadji protested, "We won't be able to monitor you in there at all. Anything can happen."

"Hadj, dad is in there, and if anything happens to him in there, we can't control how his body is gonna take it. Don't worry, this hacker is playing on my home turf," Jonny replied. "I'll make sure this hacker pays for breaking into Quest world."

VR visor in hand, Jonny sat down and prepared to put the visor on. However, he watched in some surprise as Jessie approached him, heading for the seat opposite his.

"My dad should come with you," Jessie warned, "but he told me that he'd be in town for most of the day, so I am coming with you."

He started to protest. "Jess, there are no fail safes. I don't even know-"

She risked cutting him off with a sharp retort. "Jonny Quest, we are part of the same team. We don't know what your dad is facing in there. If you are going into danger like this, you are going to need backup."

In reply, Jonny tossed a VR visor to her. "Let's go then."

When they arrived in Quest world, it was dark. There was barely a discernable green glow to contrast with the darkness. Jonny peered through the darkness, and then touched a control on his cyber-armor. The pencil thin beam of light that came out from the armor barely cut through the darkness. Jessie followed him closely as they examined as much of the VR landscape as they could.

After a few precious moments, they came across a barrier made of dark energy walls. Jessie carefully walked around it once before deciding to venture closer to it.

"Looks like a cage of some sort," Jessie remarked, putting a hand on one of the sides, "it seems solid enough."

Jonny hesitated and looked around. This seemed way too easy, and his senses were on high alert. "Dad may be in there, but this seems way too eas-Jess watch out!"

She felt Jonny shove her to the ground. When Jessie looked up she saw Jonny wrestling with what looked like a large worm. Its body was green in color and almost as long as he was tall. Its fangs glowed a bright red, and from what Jessie could see, the worm's target appeared to be Jonny's chest. "Jonny!"

Jessie watched as Jonny managed to get a hold of the worm's head, trying to push it away from his body. Suddenly, the worm screeched an awful cry. It wiggled and squirmed out of his grasp, then struck at the breastplate of his cyber-armor and burrowed inward. Jonny screamed in pain at the intrusion and then collapsed to the ground in front of her.

As the worm disappeared from view, Jessie got to her feet in panic and turned back towards the barrier. She hit it hard with her fist, but it held fast. _I have to do something! _

She tried shouting. "Dr. Quest, are you in there?"

"My dear, he can't hear you."

The new voice was different yet familiar. Jessie felt a tingle of fear, and then realized to whom the voice belonged. She turned completely around, but could find no obvious sign of him. Frustration then began to override her fear, and she called out to the open air. "Surd! What did you do to him?"

Jessie felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she came face to face with HIM.

Jeremiah Surd's virtual form stood in front of her, grinning and leaning against the dark barrier.

Jessie bit back the urge to rush him. Jonny had collapsed in tremendous pain, which could me only one thing. "We meet again Surd. I ask again, what did you do to Jonny?"

Surd had quite a pleased expression on his face. "My dear, I didn't do anything. It pays to know the right people. The hacker who released me developed a strain of virus that is particularly deadly in VR worlds such as this one. You see, once it infects you, the code eats through your data, tracking down and infecting your brainwaves. If you log out, you die. The man is a genius, wouldn't you say?"

He cackled as he pointed a finger at Jessie, "You were to have been my first victim, but this works just as well. Now, time to continue the torture!"

Surd stood up, then made a gesture towards the blackened enclosure, and it disappeared instantly, revealing Dr. Quest standing in the center.

"I will leave you to your visitors, Quest," Jeremiah Surd mocked, and his image disappeared.

The last thing Dr. Quest has heard was Surd's evil laughter, so when the barrier lifted, he was shocked to see Jessie worriedly bending over the still form of Jonny. He ran over and dropped to his knees in front of Jessie. "Jessie? What are you two doing here? What happened to Jonny?"

Jessie could barely get the words out. "Surd tried to attack me with a computer virus in the form of a viral worm-Jonny pushed me out of the way-and it attacked him. I...never saw him in so much pain before. Surd removed the system fail safes, so I don't know what's happening to him."

Dr. Quest felt a sense of dread. With the fail safes off, a virus like Jessie described could wreck havoc on Jonny's brain, leaving him brain damaged, or worse. He brought a hand up to touch the cyber-form of his son when he noticed Jonny moaning and fidgeting.

_He's trying to fight the virus. _

He leaned closer. A million different emotions were battling through his mind, but first he had to reassure Jonny as best he could. "Jonny. Son, I don't know if you can hear me or not, but I need you to hold on. I promise you we will find a way out of this."

"How touching."

Dr. Quest stood and turned around at the sound of the voice. Surd had reappeared in front of them, sitting on what looked like an elevated platform.

Anger strained what little reason Dr. Quest had. "You monster..."

His nemesis held up a finger "Now, now, temper, temper. As I was telling Miss Bannon here, my hacker friend needed a place to test his viral worms, and I needed a way out of the virtual trap she put my mind in. We traded services, and it looks like his creations are a resounding success."

Jessie's patience was also wearing thin, "So we were just a staging area for this stupid virus?"

"Well, there was the matter of getting revenge on you for imprisoning me in my own mind, but that was a nice touch, young Quest offering up his life for yours. As we speak my hacker friend is invading your system with more of the viral worms. Your fate and the fate of Quest world will be the same as your son, Dr. Qu-," Surd laughed.

Suddenly, Surd's voice broke up as both Jessie and Dr. Quest heard a welcoming voice.

"Dr. Quest? Jess? Can you read me?"

"Dad??!!??" Jess exclaimed. "You're home! How did you-"

Race's tense voice cut through the line. "No time to explain, kiddo. Hadji's trying to draw off our hacker friend long enough so we can contact you. What happened?"

"I'll tell you in a moment, Race, but I need you to scan Jonny's vital signs for me. It's urgent," Dr. Quest implored.

"I did a scan of you three when I got here," Race said, "He's been sweating buckets, running a fever, and his brainwave pattern is off the charts along with his pulse. We've been totally locked out of visual contact. What's going on in there?"

Dr. Quest felt his heart sink. "Surd has trapped us in here thanks to the help of a computer hacker. He attacked Jonny with a viral worm that has invaded his form here in Quest world. He's not responding to anything I have tried. Now Surd says that he's ready to unleash a viral attack on Quest world."

"I can vouch for that, Dr. Que-" Hadji started to say, then his voice cut back out.

"Now really, that was quite rude," Surd admonished, "You won't need their help where you are going. You have ten minutes before the virus reaches you. You'll need it! Surd logging out of Quest world."

And with that, the image of Jeremiah Surd disappeared before them.

Dr. Quest slumped to the ground and placed his head in his hands. "We've got to think of a way out of here. Jonny doesn't have much time."

Jessie sat down beside him, and watched the deep thought and strain cross his cyber-features. She remembered that when Dr. Quest developed the avatars that they all used, he insisted on full articulation of all facial features. She had helped him with the final settings, and she had to admit she had difficulty telling the difference between their real world faces and their cyber-selves.

_Waitaminute...the avatar program has a backup buffer..maybe- _

Jessie latched onto an idea. "Dr. Quest, what about the image buffers? Surely they don't only contain our avatars. Weren't you experimenting with those when you implemented the avatars?"

"I was," he agreed quietly," the backups in the buffer are supposed to contain brainwave and DNA data. I was going to use the information to try and improve the current AI programming."

"Are they still working? Would they have picked up on us?" Jessie probed.

"Yes I have made that part of the system check when Quest world is powered up, but I don't- wait, I think I know what you are implying...we could restore his data and it should overwrite the virus," he mused.

"Wouldn't that work? Our forms here are only data. With the fail safes off, we would be able to make changes to our avatars that are normally considered destructive by Quest world," Jessie asked hopefully.

"It's never been tested," Dr. Quest protested, "It sounds like it would work, but-"

A crashing sound came from behind them. Turning, Jessie saw a gaping system hole a couple of yards from their location- and hundreds of viral worms were coming through.

Hadji's voice came through once again. "Race and I have managed to quarantine Surd before he could escape through the network, but Dr. Quest, those viral worms keep evading our efforts. If you stay where you are at, they will consume you as data in less than 5 minutes. We can now get all of you logged out now, but you will have to hurry."

Dr. Quest looked over at the prone form of his son. "If he logs out in that condition it will kill him."

Jessie noticed the look of pain and doubt on his face. If this didn't work, his son would be lost to him forever.

"Please Dr. Quest, we don't have much time or much choice. We will be next if we don't do something," Jessie wailed.

On a wing and a prayer, he made his decision. "Hadji, load Jonny's data from the image buffer. Use a scan and replace pattern. Hurry!"

Both Dr. Quest and Jessie watched as Jonny's form shimmered, and reformed. Jonny laid before them, but was as still as death.

"We don't have time to run any tests," Dr. Quest said grimly, "we've got to get out of here fast. Hadji, log us out now!"

Jessie sighed in relief as the VR landscape surrounding her vanished. Taking off her goggles, she quickly got out of her chair and saw Dr. Quest rushing over to Jonny. After a few minutes, she saw his tense look change to a look of relief as he checked the sensor readings on the nearby monitor.

The relief was also apparent in Dr. Quest's voice. "Thank Heaven. Brain activity is returning to normal. Pulse steady, but weak. He's still running a fever, but with a day or two of rest, he will be fine. Just fine."

Jessie let out a breath. Their gamble worked and Jonny was safe.

Race came over to her and gave her a hug. "You ok, Jess?"

"I am now, dad," Jessie said in relief. She would never doubt her place again as a member of the Quest team.

* * *

_-Epilogue- _

Jonny's body felt like lead and was barely cooperating, but after much time and effort he finally managed to open his eyes- and realized that he wasn't in the lab.

Confused and disoriented, he panicked. Where was he? Didn't he just leave Quest world-

Jonny soon felt hands on his shoulders, trying to keep him down and a familiar voice. "Jonny...Jonny take it easy, take it easy!"

Jonny took a hesitant breath and looked around, realizing he was in his own bed, and it was Jessie who was trying to calm him down. She had a worried look in her eyes, and from the looks of the chair and the dog-eared paperback beside it, she had been there for quite a while. His thoughts were jumbled, but an important one stood out. "Jess, is dad all right? What happened?"

Jessie sighed and resumed her seat beside the bed. "Trust me, it's quite a story."

She then proceeded to tell him about Surd and the rescue operation. "And that's what happened. Your dad and mine moved you to your room and you've been out of it for about twenty-four hours now."

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "That was a smooth move, using the image buffer like that. I felt like I was being torn apart from inside my head. What happened to Surd?"

Jessie grinned. "Thanks to Hadji's quarantine, Surd was trapped right back where he was before this whole mess started. His hacker buddy has also been tracked down and his virus creation isolated, so he won't bother anyone anymore."

Soon Jessie noticed Jonny's eyes starting to droop, and she got to her feet. "I better let you get some more rest. Your dad wanted to be notified when you woke up anyway."

As she started to leave, Jonny grabbed her hand. "Wait-"

He pulled her forward and kissed her on the cheek.

Jessie's eyes widened in some surprise. "Why did you do that?"

"I was just returning the favor," he replied with a grin.

* * *

_I invoked a little creative license here, since I am working with old memories (TNT was the last network I saw the series on, and stupid cable company finally got around to adding Cartoon Network two years after the series ended on its channel.) They need __to just go ahead and release the DVD season sets like they're doing with the classic series, but maybe that's wishful thinking. Hope you have enjoyed the story. :) _

_Edit: (1/22/08) Nostalgia had me looking back at this story and realizing that as much as I loved writing my first Jonny Quest adventure, between the editor's limitations and my reluctance to use MS Word back then, it looked a little rough. This is just an attempt at a little polish. _

_Till next time, _

_Time Guardian _


End file.
